Deutsche Telekom brings in Infectious Media to help implement its Media Operating Model

With Deutsche Telekom recently introducing its new media operating model across Europe, the company has appointed Infectious Media as digital media transformation consultants.

Infectious Media will be working on data strategy and technology implementation to help Deutsche Telekom with its ambition to stay at the forefront of data-driven advertising.

Speaking at a recent conference Gerhard Louw, Senior Manager of International Media, Deutsche Telekom, said “In media, transparency is a big mess, advertisers don’t have a view into either their overall performance or their complete data. Getting this transparency was a major aim of putting our media operating model together. But on top of this, partners need to be providing the analytics, effectiveness, causation, and optimisation that will allow advertisers to answer the simple questions of, “what are we delivering and is it working?”

Deutsche Telekom’s newly evolved operating model is the result of 20 months of complex work, consisting of getting the numerous partners and methodologies aligned. Challenges arose in terms of security and privacy, whereby it was misjudged how big a part the data processing agreement (DPA) would play. “That contract was a monster. We underestimated the time it would take to close a DPA with each of the suppliers,” Gerhard says. Nevertheless, whilst this has been a lengthy process, Gerhard Louw believes that is has been worth it.

As well as managing the various partners in this new way, Deutsche Telekom are also changing how they remunerate them. They will be paying out based on a full-time employee basis, to ensure remuneration is based purely on the work done and that media strategy and plans are media neutral.

Media fragmentation

When asked about its new operating model, Gerhard discussed why Deutsche Telekom had chosen to work with multiple partners. “The fragmentation of scope in media is also significant for us, meaning one agency doing everything is no longer the best model. We see more value in contracting directly with multiple specialty partners, whilst directly owning the strategy and the data and technology choices in house.

“This is allowing us to decide what our media should achieve, the KPIs to measure this, and the resulting budget distribution across channels. This means we have increased transparency and are implementing data-driven and media-neutral plans.”

“However, this is not a simple process. Which is why we have brought in Infectious Media. We have appointed them to work on strategic digital projects, like defining the programmatic and data strategy, advancing our technology blueprint, and driving effectiveness.

“The differences in the structure, digital maturity and size of our local markets adds additional complexity. Infectious Media will work with local markets to adapt our model to their needs, and train local and central teams in its effective rollout.

“We chose Infectious Media as transformation consultants because they have a tailored approach that works well with what we are trying to achieve, and they have great experience of working with advertisers to deliver multi-region, data-driven advertising.”

At the same conference Infectious Media’s MD, Attila Jakab said, “Many large brands are looking to in-house aspects of their digital media model. Deutsche Telekom’s hybrid approach reflects its understanding of its own strengths, whilst recognising where it needs external help. The hybrid media model is becoming the ideal for advertisers, and many are looking to what Deutsche Telekom has achieved as both a template and a test case.”